Differences between Mitosis and Meiosis

Differences between Mitosis and Meiosis

In this post I have listed out main differences between mitosis and meiosis. This use to be one of the topics which was confusing to me at several points, so I made a table where I put all main differences between these two process. I hope this will help you guys too 🙂

Let’s begin with the definitions. Mitosis and meiosis are two main methods of cell divisions.

Mitosis – is a process of asexual reproduction where a cell divides in two identical daughter cells (diploid) with an equal number of chromosomes. Whereas in case of

Meiosis – the number of chromosomes are reduced by half following the separation of homologous chromosomes which results in production of four haploid daughter cells.

Differences	Mitosis	Meiosis
Type of Reproduction	Asexual	Sexual
Takes Place in / Function / Creates	Somatic cells	Germ cells
DNA Replication	Once	Once
Cell Division	Once	Twice
Chromosome Behavior / Pairing of Homologous Chromosomes	Chromosomes behave independently of each other	The homologous chromosomes forms pairs and remains adjacent to each other
Synapsis – Crossing Over and Exchange of Segments of Chromatid	Crossing over and exchange does not take place	Crossing over and exchange takes place
Type and Number of Chromosomes in Parent Cells	Diploid (2n) – 46 chromosomes	Diploid (2n) – 46 chromosomes
Type and Number of Chromosomes in Daughter Cells	Diploid (2n) – 46 chromosomes	Haploid (n) – 23 chromosomes
Number of Daughter Cells	2 Diploid cells	4 Haploid cells

For more explanation on this topic, watch this video 🙂